


Sutures and Sweets

by captainflintsjacket



Category: Star Trek: Alternate Original Series (Movies)
Genre: Christmas fic, F/M, Meet Messy, Merciless teasing, Modern AU, minor injury, secondhand embarassment
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-09-05
Updated: 2019-09-05
Packaged: 2020-10-10 06:09:55
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,529
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20523233
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/captainflintsjacket/pseuds/captainflintsjacket
Summary: Based on the prompt: Character A and Character B meet in the ER on Christmas Eve.





	Sutures and Sweets

The holidays were your least favorite time of year. Not because you didn’t like Christmas or winter weather. It just felt like as soon as that first snowflake fell, everyone forgot about common sense. The ER was flooded with people injured from falling on ice or falling off ladders while putting up decorations. Not to mention, a quarter of the trauma department had requested vacation time, so the emergency room was short-staffed on top of everything.

You dropped the latest patient’s chart onto the nurses station, trading it out for the coffee Christine handed you. “Christine Chapel, you are an angel,” you groaned when you finally took the first sip.

“You looked like you could use it,” she smiled. “Besides, if you pass out in the ER, I’d have to take care of you, and I’m busy.”

“My hero.” You reached for the next chart, ready to start another set of rounds, before almost toppling over the child standing in front of you. You steadied yourself against the counter, hoping the smile plastered on your face would keep the girl from noticing you were having a mild heart attack.

“Can you help my daddy?” She looked up at you from behind a halo of curls, eyes big and scared.

Setting the clipboard on the counter, you bent to her level and prayed that your voice would be steady when you spoke: “I can try. Who’s your daddy?” The girl pointed to a bed on the far side of the room where a dark-haired man was arguing with an intern.

You looked longingly at the coffee in your hands before putting it on the counter with a sigh. Christine shot you two thumbs up as you grabbed the girl’s hand and forced your cheeks up into what you hoped looked like a smile.

“Missing something,” you said with a chirp in your voice. The girl let go of your hand and jumped on the bed.

The man sighed. You could tell he was tired. If the flour and frosting covering the front of his sweater weren’t a dead giveaway, the bags under his eyes were. “Jo, I thought I told you not to run off.”

“I didn’t run off, daddy. I got a doctor.”

“And I’ll be happy to help,” you said, nodding for the intern to tap out. She mouthed “thank you” as she left, and you couldn’t help but wonder what exactly you’d gotten yourself into.

“Looks like you cut yourself pretty bad. What happened?”

“We were making cookies,” Jo piped in.

You raised an eyebrow. “Making cookies. Out of what? Glass?”

The patient snorted. “Yeah, just like ma used to make. Listen, darling, can we hurry this up? I’d do it myself but…” His voice trailed off as he shook his injured hand limply. The lidocaine had clearly already sunk in, so you opened a suture kit.

“Ah so that’s why you think you know better than our intern. You must be a doctor.” You kept your voice teasing, but hoped he got the message.

“Yep,” Jo answered for him. “He’s the best doctor in the world!”

“Good to know you’re a better doctor than baker, Doctor….” You trailed off, realizing you hadn’t even looked at his chart. God, you were tired.

“McCoy. Leonard McCoy.”

You paused, drawing your eyes away from the needle to look at him. “As in Mercy Gen’s pride and joy?”

Leonard groaned. “You know who I am?”

“Please, every doctor in the area knows who you are. The Jim Kirk case? That was a medical miracle what you did.”

“Sorry, didn’t realize you were a fan,” he teased.

“Yeah, well knowing you managed to cut yourself bad enough to need stitches while making cookies kinda takes away some of the celebrity.” Doesn’t take away from those delicious blue eyes, though, you thought.

“Why do you think I came here instead? My coworkers would never let me hear the end of it.”

“Who says I’m going to?” You winked at Leonard before starting the first stitch. It might have been the light, but you could have sworn he blushed. “Were the cookies at least worth it?”

“Yes,” Jo yelled at the same time Leonard said “No.”

“They were SO good. Chocolate chip - meemaw’s special recipe that she only makes at Christmas. We couldn’t go see meemaw this year so daddy was gonna make them. Only, he burned himself getting the cookies out of the oven. Then he knocked my glass of milk off the counter when he put the cookies down and slipped in the milk when he tried to clean it up. That’s how we got here.”

You hazarded a glance up at Leonard, who looked like he’d rather be lying in a field buried in snow than lying in front of you. “Funny. Given your surgical prowess, I always figured you’d have better coordination.”

“Shut up,” he grumbled.

“Maybe if you’d brought some of the cookies you wouldn’t be so grumpy. Right, Jo.”

“No, he’s always grumpy. Cookies don’t help.”

“What,” you gasped. “Cookies don’t help? That is a serious case of the grumps.”

“I’m not grumpy,” Bones mumbled.

“I think my intern would disagree.”

Bones caught your stare again, relieved to see you were still teasing him. Stil, he sighed. “I know. Will you tell her I’m sorry? It’s Christmas Eve and I just wanted to make it perfect and well…you see how that worked out.”

“I bet if you bring some of those cookies back we can forget all about it.” You snipped the last stitch and threw the needle and forceps onto the cart. “All done,” you said, peeling off your gloves. “I’ll go get your discharge paperwork started, and you’ll be free to go home and make more cookies for Santa. Maybe skip the milk this time, though.” Jo giggled and you heard her whisper excitedly to her father as you left. You couldn’t help but smile. It must be nice to have someone to spend Christmas with.

Wouldn’t mind spending it with Leonard. The thought crept into your mind as quickly as you banished it. “Married to your work” barely began to cover your relationship to your job. You didn’t have time to date, let alone to date a patient. Except he’s not going to be a patient as soon as he signs his discharge form. You pinched the bridge of your nose and sighed. You really needed some sleep.

“Here’s your discharge paperwork,” you said as you approached Leonard’s bed again. “Since you’re a hot shot surgeon, I trust you know how to keep that clean?”

“I think I can manage, sugar.”

“Well, if it does start bothering you, sugar, feel free to come back in and someone’ll check it out. If there’s no questions, you guys are free to go.”

Jo looked at her dad impatiently. He returned her stare, shaking his head and motioning for them to go. She shook her head in response, crossing her arms as they continued their silent conversation. You stood awkwardly to the side, chart still in hand as you watched them.

You could sense Leonard’s growing desperation as his silent gestures became more erratic and decided to pipe up. “Are there….questions?”

Leonard sighed. “Joanna wanted to know if you could come over and try some of the cookies we made, but-”

“It wasn’t just me,” Jo interrupted. “Daddy wants you to come over too!”

“Does he now,” you said, struggling not to smile.

“Yes, he does. You said so, daddy” Jo argued when Leonard shook his head again. “You said she was pretty and that I could invite her over for cookies!”

You looked to Leonard for explanation, but he was currently hiding behind his hands, begging silently for a trauma to come in and distract you. Joanna tugged gently at his sleeves until he finally dropped his hands. He avoided your eyes as he spoke, “Yes, I would like you to come over for cookies if you’re free.”

There was no way this was happening. You honestly began to wonder if you’d fallen asleep in the on call room and dreamt all of this. All you could do was laugh. “Someone will need to help you change those bandages, and if there’s cookies on the table I suppose I could be tempted to make a house call.”

“You really don’t have to,” Leonard said, taking the discharge forms. A blush crept up his neck as he pretended to read the papers. You smiled down at him before reaching forward and turning the forms right side up. Joanna fell into a fit of giggles as Leonard signed the forms and handed them back to you. “I think we’re just gonna go before I do anything else to lower your opinion of me.”

“Don’t know if it can get much lower,” you joked. “But, if you ever want to try my number’s on your discharge papers.”

Bones stammered out one last thank you before taking Jo’s hand and leading her outside. You leaned against the nurses’ counter, bottom lip pulled between your teeth, as you watched them go. Maybe the holidays weren’t all bad after all.

**Author's Note:**

> Originally posted on Tumblr @trade-baby-blues


End file.
